Confessions of a Shopaholic In Review

Are you a shopaholic?

Fashion Can Be Addictive

Are you run down from a week of work? Does your brain need some time off to relax? Are you in need of some escapism? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, Confessions of a Shopaholic is the film for you.

Confessions is based on two of British novelist’s, Madeline Wickham, using pen name, Sophie Kinsella, books: The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic or, in America, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad or, as Americans know it, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. The movie sets the story in modern day Manhattan. The heroine, Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), is a twenty-something shopaholic with dreams of working on an established magazine. Thanks to her addiction, she is very deep into debt. When debt collectors call, and they frequently do, her friends cover for her. Despite her questionable professionalism (She writes drunken letters to two magazines and sends them to the wrong address.) and her near lack of experience, she gets hired to write a fashion column for a financial magazine. Sparks fly between Rebecca and her boss, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), and they begin to fall in love with each other. However, as in all romantic comedies, all does not go as planned.

Isla Fisher makes a likeable lead. While her behavior is frustrating, she has your sympathy. She is the family member you love despite their flaws, the friend you love to hang out with, but would never lend money to. Hugh Dancy makes a good match for Fisher, relying on his good looks and charm. While the rest of the cast is great (Kristin Scott Thomas, Lynn Redgrave, John Goodman, John Lithgow to name a few), this movie is all Fisher.

As with many movies of this nature, it is very predictable. You are given the laughs you go for, the movie holding true to the coming attraction. You aren’t given brilliance, but you weren’t going for that anyway. It’s a good movie, but not worthy of an award.

Considering the state of our economy, this movie is very appropriate. As a country, we’re dealing with the ramifications of ignoring debt. Like Rebecca, we’re realizing that all of the things we got into debt over weren’t really worth it. Our needs were more like wants. Yet, for people like Rebecca, their wants really are needs, at least to them. She is trying to fill a void. Shopping having been the family past time in her youth, clothes turn her into the person she feels she needs to be. Like every addiction, its something to be worked on, her lack of selfish-esteem needing to be addressed first. For people like Rebecca, this film could be a true eye opener. On second thought, maybe this “fluff” movie has more to it than I initially thought.